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Three major Florida law enforcement groups have joined a growing list of voices advocating changes to the state's gun laws to prevent criminals from legally carrying handguns.

Leaders of the Florida Sheriffs Association, the Florida Fraternal Order of Police, and the Florida Police Chiefs Association told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel this week that they will support efforts to tighten eligibility rules for concealed weapon licenses.

At the same time, the Regional Community Collaboration on Violence, a South Florida organization dedicated to reducing gun violence, said it will make recommendations to the Legislature for change.

The group is made up of police, prosecutors, politicians and parents of children slain by firearms in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

"We're not waiting for more tragedies to happen," said Jeff Gorley, the organization's chairman.

The action follows a Sun-Sentinel investigation last month that found more than 1,400 Floridians possessed valid concealed weapon licenses even though they pleaded guilty or no contest to felonies. The crimes included assault, burglary, drug possession, sexual battery and manslaughter.

Hundreds of others did not have their firearm licenses suspended or revoked despite warrants for their arrests, domestic violence injunctions or misdemeanor convictions for reckless acts with guns.

Among the licensees: six registered sex offenders, a Tampa pizza deliveryman wanted for fatally shooting a 15-year-old over a stolen order of chicken wings, and a Pembroke Pines man who shot his girlfriend in the head as she cooked breakfast.

"You've got some horrendous examples in your story that should not be tolerated," said Leon County Sheriff Larry Campbell, president of the Florida Sheriffs Association.

Campbell said the association will push to toughen the law.

"I'm all for the people's right to carry a firearm," he said. "But I'm certainly not for the felon's right to carry one."

Other law enforcement chiefs agreed.

"It's time to make some adjustments," Miami-Dade Police Director Robert Parker said.

The National Rifle Association, which wields considerable influence in Tallahassee, vowed to oppose any revision that excludes people who have not been formally convicted.

"We do not participate in legislation that gratuitously takes away the rights of people, because when you begin taking away the rights of people that you don't like, that's the slippery slope," said Florida NRA lobbyist Marion P. Hammer.

Convicted felons are prohibited in Florida from possessing guns or gun licenses. The more than 1,400 people the Sun-Sentinel found with valid gun licenses entered guilty or no contest pleas and commonly served probation, but had convictions "withheld" from their records. Such plea agreements spare defendants from being labeled convicted felons, while moving cases faster through the court system.

"When people plead guilty or no contest in these cases frequently, very frequently, these are people who have not committed any crime, but their lawyer advises them to take a plea bargain," Hammer said.

Campbell called the distinction "strictly semantics."

"If you shot someone with a gun ... and pleaded guilty or nolo [no contest], you are a criminal," he said.

House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, said this month that the Legislature could consider creating a special judicial category in which all people sentenced for certain crimes would forfeit the right to carry concealed weapons. "Our goal has to be to make sure that dangerous people don't have access to weapons," he said.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-pgunlicense16feb16,1,2549340.story

What a coincidence. I don't believe you either. Especially the part where you are saying what he would do if he were President. You psychic? Here's my "proof":

Read your own article.

Unfortunately these are not felons individuals, they should be, but sentences were pled down or withheld.

Legal experts said judges typically withhold convictions of first-time offenders so they are not forever branded convicted felons. But the practice has extended to repeat offenders as courts grapple with clogged dockets.
"It's a quicker way to resolve cases," said Sen. Democratic Whip Dave Aronberg, of Greenacres, a former assistant attorney general.

That's not a loophole, it's lazy, inefficient law enforcement. The solution has nothing to do with guns. You should write your state representative and Governer and let him know how you feel. But it's not a federal or gun control problem.

It's worth noting unconvicted, unarmed child molesters are a risk too. They should be in jail, not walking the streets. Shame on Florida.